political rant and ramblings.

Neofeudalism

I like this term. Saw some people talking about the current state of politics in the United States and somebody tossed out this word as an aside. Personally I think it fits perfectly.

Starting with the government punishing people for being teachers. Wages frozen, benefits yanked away, more students crammed into the classroom. Now with the current battle over the budget even more funding will be cut from our education system. Why would anybody want to become a teacher in an environment like that? Why would the government seem to let this happen?

They don't want an educated lower class. It's almost like a drive back to the middle ages where only the church/government families had access to higher education. The more ignorant the lower class is the easier they are manipulate and the less chance of there being some 'competition' from them come election day.

Let's see. Step one start eliminating the middle class. Step two stay in a continuous state of warfare. Step three further segregate the lower class from the upper class by removing educational services. Step four is win. Or something like that.

Keep us poor, keep us stupid, keep us just healthy enough to work.

Cyberpunk Role - Courier (well the basics of one)

Going through one of my notebooks I found some stuff I had quickly jotted down for a Courier as a Cyberpunk Role. The kind of Courier found in Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. All I got were the system basics. I'll try to do a full write up soon and put it up as well.

Courier

Special Ability: Pilot-Street Board (if you ever read Snow Crash you know these boards require a special skill).


Starting cash:
1-5 = 1500eb - Road Rash
6 = 3000eb - Transporter
7 = 5000eb - Highway Prince or Princess
8 = 7000eb - Prima
9 = 9000eb - Ultra
10 = 12000eb - Elite


Career Skill Package:
Streetwise
Hide/Evade
Language - Street
Shadow/Track
Athletics
Stealth
Melee
Basic Tech
First Aid

Be A Better Player part 6: Be prepared to play.

GM – Alright folks lets get this rolling tonight got a lot of loose ends left over from the last session that you are probably dying to tie up.

Player 1 – Damn straight. Gonna go shakedown that shopkeeper for my money back.

Player 2 – Yeah I think there was a reason he sold us that fake map. Somebody wanted us to go there.

Player 3 – Man I forgot my notebook, ah well I think I can remember everything.

GM – I hope so. Alright who was...

Player 3 – Hey anybody got a spare set of dice? I think mine are on the fridge back at the apartment. Keep forgetting them up there.

Player 2 – Again?

Player 4 – Here I got you covered just remember to give them back okay?

Player 3 – Oh and I need a pencil also.

Player 1 – Groan.

GM – Did you remember to bring anything?

Player 3- Um... well... actually can I get a soda from you?

There are certain things that are needed for play. Now even though it may vary from game to game or even from group to group there is still stuff you should remember. Having to borrow your way through a session really pulls any sort of immersion that the other players are having and tends to slow things down as well. Now if you are new to playing RPGs then sometimes this can be overlooked. But when you been at it for years there is no excuse. So let's cover some basics shall we?

Dice. Most games require you to have some dice. Some, like D&D, require a full set while others like World of Darkness stuff require just a lot of one type. But they still need them. Any gamer who has been at the hobby for a while should have his own set. Most have several of different colors and styles. Hell I have a box of sets and an extra box of oddities. So it shouldn't be hard to show up with what you need. Find out before hand what is being played and put the needed few aside for the game.

Pencil. Let me make that a bit clearer, pencil with an eraser. You have a character sheet, you will most likely be writing on that character sheet. Then throughout the game things on that character sheet may change or you will have to adjust something else. For this you will need the ever so handy pencil and eraser. So pick up one, or better yet pick up a cheap pack, and put them right next to your dice and bring them along.

Notebook. Not nearly as needed as the previous two items but damn it comes in real handy. Keeping track of npc names, places and various happenings in the game. Hell I used to keep a drawing of the game table with each player marked with their character names so I could refer to them in character while we were playing. So grab a cheap Wal-Mart special out of the notebook isle and put your pencil in the spiral and put your dice on top and you are set.

Now other games and other gamemasters may require more. Plenty of games out there require tokens, cards or some other item. Just check beforehand and find out what you are expected to bring to play. Get it all together in one place and make sure to take it with you. For bonus points bring along that extra dice set in case somebody forgets theirs.

Need weblinks....

Really need to redo the links page on my website. Some major updates are in order. But before I do this are there any particular sites that you would like to see listed there? Your own personal site, blog, a favorite forum, a site that you just think is damned cool. I'll give them a look and if I like I'll post them up.

You can post them as a comment here or send them to peteramthor@gmail.com

Oh and for those who don't know where my website is:

Truly Rural Productions

Working on the system for Rogue Televison

Okay been brainstorming on a simple skill system to use with Rogue Television. I don't want it complex or number crunchy but with some variance. Also wanted to step away from the usual method of rolling under your skill level that I usually use in a lot of games.

Here is what I have so far copy/paste from my open office document I'm jotting all of this down on.

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Skill ranking and mechanics idea. Uses just six siders.

unskilled roll two dice and keep the lowest
skilled roll two and keep the highest
adept roll three and keep the highest
expert roll four and keep the highest

Some skills would be listed as NA for unskilled and impossible to do at that level.

Target numbers would depend on the action. Some would be based off a preset difficulty. For example with lockpicking the lock would have its own number that needed to be reached. 2 for the easiest and 6 for the hardest. Performing under duress adds one to the target number. Others such as dancing would depend on a number determined by the GM, with 2 being easy and 6 being the hardest.

Target numbers for hitting somebody would depend on the weapon and range/actions of target. Examples: Long range would add one, moving target would add one, duress would add one, weapon is low quality adds one, things like this. So if you are trying to hit a perfectly stationary target at normal range the difficulty would be 2. But a target at long range that is running and you are being shot at also (duress) would be a 5.

Of course this could make combat pretty deadly with expert fighters. But then again, shouldn't it be that way?

Cyberpunk Sunday 004 - Virtual Currency and something completely different.

Let's start off this post with a little look at something related to the world economy. Say something along the lines of a virtual currency that isn't backed and supported by any government or major organization. Completely anonymous ability to 'pay' somebody with it. No real world form what so ever. I give you the Bitcoin.

Yes that's right... the Bitcoin.

Now what is this good for? Is this WoW gold or something? Well some places have embraced it completely. Several online services now accept it as payment.

Check their wiki for a list of them.

Now the first thing that came to mind was 'why would they do this?'. I mean it's virtual money and they offering services that usually fetch them real money. But here they are taking the Bitcoin as a form of payment. That's because some places buy and sell Bitcoins for real currency. Of course they charge a small exchange rate, that's how they make their money.

Here's one right now.

Going rate for a Bitcoin as I write this is $18.14 US. That's a pricey bit of coin that is. Trust me when I say people are starting to take notice. It has really become an amazing thing.

SmartMoney even did an article on it.

So now this makes for a very interesting future in money markets. It also proves the power of the internet at this point. When multiple bussinesses have decided to support a currency that only exists online and bears no allegiance to any countries printed currency. Of course there are all sorts of problems that will pop up and have to be worked out over the next few years of it's existance. But Bitcoin is really laying down some groundwork for a virtual economy.

Now remember up there at the top where I said it can be done anonymously. Yeah that's important on this last Bitcoin related link. You see everybody knows usually where there is big money to be made it's in something illegal. There is this Deepnet site (I'll talk about the Deepnet in the future) out there that provides a nice market for illegal goods. Drugs. Any drugs, all drugs, you name it and somebody is selling it for Bitcoin. You can't get to it by normal 'type in the URL' means either. You have to have a masked IP to get there, but once there you can take your pick of poison and pay for it with Bitcoin.

Wired has your 411 all about it.

So buying illegal drugs off a website that you have to know some computer trickery to get to and you pay for it with an untracable anonymous form of payment. Doesn't get much more cyberpunk than that.

Unless it's something that reads your brainwaves.

Yeah how about something that reads your brainwaves... wouldn't that be cool. Well it's out there. It can sense your brainwaves and tell if you are in deep thought, in a happy mood, daydreaming and what have you. It's a brain activity sensor that you wear on your head. No sticky pads with wires either, no surgery on the brain pan with some bits sticking out. That's cool as hell if you ask me.

So what does the company that came up with this thing do?

THEY PUT FUCKING CAT EARS ON IT!

Yeah cat ears... that move around to different positions based on your current pattern of thought. Now I'm no furry fan but this is just such a 'what the fuck are you thinking' idea that even I love it. Absolutely insane. When it's ready to goto market they are going to sell these things like they are a cure for freaking cancer, impotence and heart disease all rolled into one. Going to rake in millions. Hopefully with that millions they will put some of it into making something useful with the technology. Like maybe even the first actual real function mood ring.

Little Fears: NE old playtest report.

Two years ago, on my old Livejournal blog. I was keeping track of some of my playtest games for Little Fears: Nightmare edition (which is very well done btw). Here is the entry from June 13, 2009.

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Some highlights of the playtest session from the other night.

The kids sneak into an abandoned house that is next door to Old Mister Crumpe's house so they can spy on him. When they find a room with a window they can use they also find notes from the child who used to live in the room. Notes detailing the old man following them, people who entered his house and never left, notes about things they saw in his yard... These notes were written in crayon around the window.

Hearing a series of metallic clicks all through the house and then discovering those clicks were all the doors locking themselves. Including the lock on the door for the room they were in. An added plus was the little knob to lock it was on their side of the door.

Zombie cop. Especially since that instead of the usual random moan is croaking out a slow drawn out 'help me'.

'I can' lie my way out of anything.

The npc next door neighbor kid who has a strange hang up with skulls. Then while searching for something that was dropped in the tall grass around Old Mister Crumpe's house he raises up and says 'look a skull!' and is holding an actual skull. Then suddenly everybody realizing the reality of the situation.

Sarah finding a gravestone with her name on it. With her birthday listed and todays date as the day she died.